The editorial bit at the top of the five slices of music thing again and again and however you slice it we can’t go on about earfood again. Of course it was sushi and here comes the introduction that heralds the latest Five Music Things thing and whatever the hell the five music thing is actually all about. Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Do we need to do the editorial bit again? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling albino giraffes out of tiny hats? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever a reason? What do reasons make? Five more, everything must go and same as last time (and the time before) five, and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and cut cut slash and cut it, who needs an editorial or words or worms in general? Just facts and links then.  Here you go, play the music, grab your five, eat your greens, go eat some art, go eat some dirt and don’t forget the yellow ones…

Here we go, five (or so) more musical things in no particular order and for no particular reason, well no, that’s what we usually say with these five things pages but this time, pride of place goes to Death Pill.

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1: Death Pill – Now this is good news, we haven’t heard from the Death Pill girls for a couple of months, always a bit of a worry when things go quiet what with them being from Kyiv.

“So, we’ve been a little quiet to shout today loud and surely that the ALBUM IS READY AND IT CAN BE ORDERED ON VINYL! This is what you can do at our friends, the London label New Heavy Sounds which we have recently become part of) Not only an album is ready, but also a bunch of interesting stuff, believe me, we tried very, very hard to make everything beautiful and as cool as possible! Hugging you tight, hope you’re well as possible! 🖤🖤🖤”. 

We had been covering Death Pill on these pages, and indeed playing them on Resonance FM for quite some time now (by the way, Resonance FM won a big radio award last night, the bosses sent up a London-based Ukrainian listener to collect the award on behalf of the station), we do keep watching for news, not only for news of the band but just signs that the gilrs and thier friends and family are still okay. So yesterday when New Heavy Sounds  said “Heads up people, we are very, very proud to welcome hardcore punk trio Death Pill to our label. Not only are they a ferocious punk rock force of considerable muscle, but that their debut album has been made at all is a testament to an indomitable and unquenchable fighting spirit. We say this because the band is from Ukraine, and we don’t need to tell you what’s going down over there. We are so chuffed to be working with Marayana, Natali and Anastaysia, who despite the extreme situation, have managed to create an album that is as hard, ferocious and uncompromising as it gets, and amazingly was completed despite the war. You will not want to miss this, so watch out…”

The first song taken from Death Pill’s self titles first album has just been posted. it is of course that defiantly fast and furious angry hardcore punk with that slice of a metalcore edge that we’d expect. You can pre-order the album via Bandcamp, details down there under the video, meanwhile here’s some info from the band on the song and video (good on New Heavy Sounds by the way).

“This is a song about my ex. I was very angry with him and wrote this track full of rage and revenge. He is an asshole and deserves it!  Our friend, Tementy aka Slippy Inc. (famous Ukrainian live stage photographer and video maker) asked us to be a part of his uncommercial project “GROUND”. This project is not just about filming a nice picture, it is about showing the fresh and sick soul of a band without typical clichés and tinsel. And we did it!  We filmed this music video in the iconic place in Kyiv – AssCoBar. This place had a lot of crazy parties, birthdays, discos, karaoke, art markets, we even had a female arm-wrestling competition once!   Our first performance (2017) took place here, so for us it is a special closeness. This place is a big part of the Ukrainian underground scene. Unfortunately, it closed in 2022, but will forever remain open in our hearts (and in this music video also)”.

Expect more from us closer to the release date, this is brilliant to see, it would have been brilliant to see without all the cowardly crap from Russia, Death Pill are a damn fine band anyway, but hey, the fact that they have een made this album in 2022 what with all that is happening is extra brilliant. Album of the year without hearing more that the one blistering track! And yes, this is sounding like a massive step forward musically….

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Death Pill on Bandcamp

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2: UTO – Row Paddle – another slice of goodness from the excellent UTO, what more do we need to say that we haven’t already said? – ORGAN THING: Well we have been sitting on this rather beautiful new UTO album, Touch The Lock, for a couple of weeks or more now…

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3: Black Belt Eagle Scout – My Blood Runs Through This Land and a singlr from the album The Land, The Water, The Sky, an album that’s due out in February 2023. A rather warm tiny epic of a first taste you might say, a big tiny epic, a “Story of hope and healing through Black Belt Eagle Scout’s return to Swinomish Indian Tribal Community”. There’s a second track, a b-side maybe? A rather breathy second track called Don’t Give Up, both pieces of music can be found on our ever evolving Otgan Things November playlist that you can find right here, meanwhile , more about Black Belt Eagle Scout via the lazily cut ‘n pasted press release that’s dow nthere under the video.

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“Black Belt Eagle Scout, moniker of Swinomish Indian Tribal Community-based multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul, announces The Land, The Water, The Sky, her new album out February 10th on Saddle Creek, and today presents a new single/video, “My Blood Runs Through This Land.” In every note of The Land, The Water, The Sky, Paul has written a love letter to indigenous strength and healing, and a story of hope, as it details the joy of returning. Comments Paul, “I created The Land, The Water, The Sky to record and reflect upon my journey back to my homelands and the challenges and the happiness it brought.”

Paul found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In 2020 she made the journey from Portland back to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. There is a throughline of story in every song on The Land, The Water, The Sky, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There are moments of frustration over a world wrought with colonial violence and pain, and the presence of joy, a fierce blissfulness that comes with walking the trails along the river, feeling the sand and the stones beneath her feet. It is the pride and the certainty that comes with knowing her ancestors walked along the same land, dipped their hands into the water, and ran their fingertips along the same bark of cedar trees.

“My Blood Runs Through This Land,” follows the previously released, “Don’t Give Up,” a song about the role the land plays within Paul’s mental health journey. In Paul’s words, “‘My Blood Runs Through This Land’ is about the connection I have with my ancestors. When I run my hands through the rocks at Snee Oosh beach and dip my fingers into our waterways, I am reminded of where I come from. Paying attention to all of the sounds and the feelings I get when I am immersed in trails of cedar trees and canoeing out on the water deeply grounds me and strengthens my bond to my lineage of the Swinomish tribe. I wanted the delicateness of these moments to meet the intense reality of the history of my people. I like to imagine my blood – all of my ancestors – running through our homelands freely and powerfully.” Fast-paced guitars and bursts of guitar lines throughout emulate that “running.” The accompanying video, directed by Evan Benally Atwood, captures this energy.

The power of this land is woven throughout The Land, The Water, The Sky. Even in its most melancholy moments it is never despairing. That is the beauty of returning home. When you stand on ancestral lands it is impossible to be alone – the arms and hands hold you up, unwilling to let you fall into sorrow or abandonment. In The Land, The Water, The Sky, Katherine Paul has channeled that feeling of being held”.

And here’s a release from three years ago…

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4: Penny Rich – Have we covered Cardiff-based punk three-piece Penny Rich before? I can’t bleedin’ well remember, things are melding into one big band, one big blob of music, it feels like we’ve covered them before, we’ve certainly covered a hundred bands like them before, probably more like a thousand, the damn Organ thing has been going longer than most bands now. The Cardiff punks have a new single, actually, it’s quite a step forward from their old stuff, they come with a more accomplished bite now and Jade says she’s stoked about it (Jade sent it in just now, thanks Jade), they’ve got an edge now, an edge that sees them standing out a little from the overcrowded punk pop pack, here’s their new single, a big step on from their previous stuff  (does anyone remenber Gog Magog? probably not)

“The song explores the idea of a last meal as a metaphor for empty, superficial pleasures, indulged in to temporarily escape the anguish, anxiety or depression the consumer may be experiencing. It’s the juxtaposition between feelings of superficial satiety and profound emptiness. In short: empty pleasures that fail to cure the real issues at play.”

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5: Decor – I’ll take two please, Decor put a self-titled album, Decor, out last year but hey, better late than never (and it has been featuring on the Other Rock Show rather a lot so don’t be complaining now). hey, there just isn’t time to write about all the great music and art and musical art and painterly songs out there and this is a rather fine album (sorry, should have covered it last year), This is a mean album, a brooding album, Decor are clearly a band who matter and this is awkwardly good. This is difficult, this is hard boiled, this is very heavy and yet so so easy, so inviting, this is an album that says “hey, come look at what we have here in this dark corner”, listen to it with all the jagged riffs and these rusty guitar strings and the bits of broken glass that will surely get in there. This is a big album, a big sound. Decor are from Brooklyn, New York, they kind of peck at you, not like some small bird though, listen to the way Curb Alert pecks like some great hulding stomping 30ft seagull wanting your eyes, listen to the way Tux menaces or the way that… well you get the idea, hit the play button and find out for yourself…  

You can find the album on Bandcamp 

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And….

while we’re here, well no, that should di it for today, we’re busy, no time for more music this week, all about the Art Car Boot Fair next week…. – ORGAN PREVIEW: The Art Car Boot Fair winter edition is just nine days away, it all happens online, It’s A Pattern, an artist-friendly affair, opening on Friday December 1st…